It may not seem like much now, but in 1985, Dire Straits’ music video for Money For Nothing was the bomb! It was one of the first music videos to use computer-animated human characters, and it was considered ground-breaking at the time of its release.
Reportedly, lead singer Mark Knopfler was very anti-videos and did not like the concept for the video. However, MTV loved the song, but would not play it if it was just a video of Knopfler standing there singing and playing guitar. Luckily, Knopfler’s girlfriend at the time loved the idea for the video. She was present when they were pitching the video idea to Knopfler in Budapest, and she said, “There aren’t enough interesting videos on MTV, and that sounds like a great idea.” Knopfler supposedly didn’t say anything, but he didn’t stop the production of the video either.
Both the song and the music video were huge hits with the song topping the Hot 100 charts and the music video winning Video of the Year and Best Group Video.
Enjoy this look back at Dire Straits’ ground-breaking music video for Money For Nothing from 1985!
